Diabetic and Healthy

In today's show, Charlotte with our diabetes specialist dietician ,Isi, and we look at our top five nutrition tips.

As well as packing in a huge amount of 'food' related information into this show, we take a very refreshing approach to nutrition and find out why food is good but it doesn't have to be boring.

Isi reveals what her is the most common question she gets asked as a specialist diabetic dietician! Find out what this is.

We also look to bust some of those big diabetes myths about food and tackle some of those questions like "can I really eat that?". And we also bust a few myths about dieticians too!

We start with the obvious question for Isi which is...

What is a diabetes specialist dietician?

If you're a diabetic do you need a specialist dietician?

How important is nutrition to your blood sugar levels?

Should you eat 'diabetic' meals?

But we also tackle some obvious questions such as how to tell if a food is good or bad for you.

Plus, we ask Isi, our diabetic dietician, how would you describe a healthy eating? You might be surprised at the answer.

If you have diabetes, you are probably well aware of the impact that just a standard cold can have on your blood sugar levels. In this episode we will talk about how I personally try to manage it when I'm ill. Life doesn't stop when you're poorly so it's important that we take extra care of ourselves to stop things escalating and we can get back on form as quickly as possible.

Included in this week episode we find a balance with your diabetes, we'll be talking exercise and how to lead a full and active life.

Hello, welcome to episode 2 of the Diabetic and Healthy podcast. If you listened to our first podcast thank you so much for coming back and a big hi and welcome if you are a new listener. 

Last week I was talking about how we often try to make healthy changes for new year and the reasons why sometimes they don’t work. We were all going to try and make one small change and increase our step count each day so I really hope you have achieved that, big pat on the back if you have! 

Following on from talking about new fitness regimes last week, in today’s show I’m going to share with you part of an interview that I did with a lovely lady called Gemma. 

Gemma is a working Mum of 3 boys and has had Type 1 Diabetes for many years now. She was diagnosed 28 weeks into her first pregnancy with what the doctors originally assumed was gestational Diabetes but unfortunately after Gemma’s son was born it became clear that she actually had Type 1 Diabetes. So not only did Gemma have a newborn baby to look after she also had this shock diagnosis and new condition to manage.  

Gemma has been kind enough to share her story and agreed to let us follow her journey as she makes some real changes to her lifestyle. After the interview I’ll be talking about some of the challenges that Gemma has encountered and what advice I would give for anyone having similar issues. 

This is me catching up with Gemma after she had what felt like a rather frustrating gym session! 

Welcome to the very first Diabetic and Healthy Podcast! 

Firstly, I’d like to thank you so much for listening, if you do like what you hear please hit subscribe below so that you never miss a show. 

My name is Charlotte, I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes about 14 years ago and I am going to be the main host of the show. 

If you are wondering what the Diabetic and Healthy podcast is all about then let me give you a little overview. 

In a nutshell the Diabetic and Healthy podcast has been created to make life with Diabetes easier. It’s about not just living with Diabetes but thriving with it. You really can live a full, happy and healthy life with diabetes and I along with other members of the team want to teach you how. 

Whether you have Diabetes or you have a loved one with Diabetes and you want to learn more, without being baffled with the usual medical jargon, then you are 100% in the right place.

The shows are going to cover everything from fitness and healthy eating to mental health and mindfulness. 

It won’t just be myself talking you will also hear from my co-costs who include Isi, a highly qualified dietitian who specialises in Diabetes and Meggie who is a qualified counsellor.

Just to give a bit of background on me, I’m a fully qualified PT and I went on to do a level 4 Diploma so that I could specialise in working with people with Diabetes. 

I’m genuinely passionate about health and fitness and I’d love to share my own experiences, challenges and stories, some good, some bad, as I’m sure that many of you will be able to relate. 

At the end of this show I’m going to be sharing my email address with you all so that if you would like to share your own diabetes related stories or maybe you have some suggestions of subjects you would like us to cover then I would love to hear from you. As much as we have planned out our own content, The Healthier Diabetic exists to help you, so any ideas are welcome, we are open minded. 

I want this to be a safe place where we can all be honest, and no subject is off limits. As much as we are going to be discussing all the positive things you can add to your life to make having Diabetes easier, we also want to address some of the challenges that you may have experienced. In future shows we will cover some of the less talked about parts of Diabetes like Diabetes denial, burn out, depression, anxiety and even eating disorders like Diabulimia. 

Personally, I feel that having Diabetes does often make it feel like I’m being judged. Either from people that don’t know the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 and therefore assume I either live an unhealthy lifestyle or that I was previously overweight or even being judged over my food choices. I definitely think the term ‘bad diabetic’ should be banned. None of us are ‘bad diabetics’. Having Diabetes is hard, and we shouldn’t be judged nor should we judge anyone else on how they manage the condition. We are all trying our best to get on with life and manage a very challenging condition that we didn’t ask for. So, let’s be kind to one another. There are no bad diabetics there are just some that may be struggling more than others and that’s ok. I want to help. I want everyone to know that you are already doing great because you are still here and even by deciding to listen to this podcast you are taking a step towards living a healthier life. So well done you for making a start. 

Whether you are newly diagnosed, or you have had diabetes for decades, I would like to think that you should still be able to take something away from each show. Whether it’s a practical tip to help you improve your health or just some piece of mind that you aren’t alone in your diabetes challenges, I will always try to give you something positive to take away with you.

Right well we can’t ignore it’s the start of the new year, a new decade in fact, I know I’m pretty late to be saying it but Happy New year everyone.

As much as I don’t really buy into the whole New Year resolution, ‘New Year New Me’ stuff I do still get that a new year feels like a good opportunity for a fresh start, to make some changes or start something new. Especially if you have had a rather indulgent festive period! 

So, lets talk about an obvious one, a new fitness regime. I’m going to give me honest opinion on this. We have all seen the quotes and memes about the gym being rammed in January and then empty in February. Although it’s a bit harsh there is undeniably a large element of truth to it. So in all seriousness why does this happen? 

People go in with all the best intentions but within a month the gym is raking in membership fees from hundreds of people who aren’t even using it anymore. It’s because we all try to do too much too soon. 

Sure be enthusiastic but nobody can go from couch potato to doing 3 weight sessions, 2 boxercise classes and 1 spin class a week just overnight. Or, if they can then they certainly can’t sustain it.

You pull muscles, you knacker yourself out, you have heaps of hypos and then feel like a failure and give up. Ok so I’m exaggerating slightly but you know what I’m saying. 

What you need to know is when it comes to physical exercise, everything counts. You don’t have to run marathons to make a difference. It doesn’t have to be extreme and it doesn’t have to take up hours of your time.

Just making small changes but being consistent with them is the way to succeed. Whether you want to lose weight or feel fitter and healthier you can start by just increasing your daily activity levels. Just making conscious decisions to move more. My blood sugar levels are at their worst when I’m having a lazy day. Just by making better decisions my blood sugars naturally even themselves out and I avoid the dramatic spikes and lows. 

An easy example of something you could do. You drive to the supermarket and naturally we take the laziest parking space ie the one closest to the supermarket entrance. 

Why not increase your step count by simply by parking on the other side of the car park. If you have a fitness tracker or a phone that can track your steps, it’s a great way of seeing how much simple changes like this can impact your daily step count. 

Just by being more mindful in your day to day life you can increase your activity levels so much.

They say it takes weeks to build a new habit so just by working on taking more steps for 3 weeks means that after that you could be making all these better choices without even consciously thinking about it. Then it’s time to start working on your next healthy lifestyle change. 

It could be meal planning, reducing refined sugar intake, doing a weekly workout, anything, but my point is you are more likely to succeed if you gradually make small, sustainable lifestyle changes rather than go all out in one go and burn yourself out. 

I’m saying this not just because studies have proven it works but also from my own personal experience. 

Ok it may not give you extreme, instant results but what is the point in fast results if you can’t sustain them. So, lets all start by making one small change, lets increase our step count. To be honest when you look at the benefits it should be a no brainer. 

It helps regulate your blood sugar levels. Any cardiovascular activity helps increase your bodies metabolism and the receptor sensitivity to the sugar in our blood. This means that your body then uses glucose more efficiently which naturally lowers your blood sugar levels. Ok you might not even care about the scientific bit but the main take away from this is that increasing your daily steps can help regulate your blood sugar levels. That alone should be enough to do it but there’s more. 

It improves your cardiovascular health, that means it has a positive impact on your heart, lungs, arteries and veins. 

It improves your mood. There is a strong link between diabetes and depression and other mental health conditions. It’s an area I’m going to cover and talk about in much more detail in future shows but yes, increasing your daily steps can help reduce stress and make you feel more relaxed. 

The list goes on so feel free to look into it further yourself but it really is a no brainer when you are getting so much benefit from what is really pretty minimum effort. 

Another reason that making small changes one at a time is the best way forward is that, from a diabetes point of view, its far easier to monitor and make adjustments. If you were to suddenly massively increase your activity levels and drastically change your diet its going to effect your blood sugar levels and insulin requirements substantially and it will be hard to know how and when to make adjustments. If you change one thing at a time it allows you to record any impact it has on your blood sugar levels and you can then make your insulin adjustments accordingly. 

Well we are coming to the end of the first show. 

If you want to know what to expect from future shows, we are going to be discussing everything you need to know to live a healthy life in terms of fitness and nutrition. From simple fitness tips to great recipes to try. We will be covering behaviour change tips so you can break the cycle if you feel you have developed an unhealthy relationship with food or need to break the habit of yoyo dieting. 

We are also going to be doing some fantastic interviews that you do not want to miss! 

We will take a look at the latest Diabetes gadgets and apps to see what’s worth getting and so much more! 

Thank you again for listening, I really do hope you have enjoyed it. If you have please leave a 5* review and hit subscribe. Also make sure you tell any friends or family about us if you think they could benefit from listening too. 

As promised my email address is [email protected] I would love to hear from you about your own experiences, challenges, subjects you would like to cover and also your thoughts on the show so far. 

Until next time, take care and have a happy and healthy time.